Watch a time-lapse movie of the flower opening

When day becomes night, even for just a couple of minutes, some strange things can happen.

The darkness can send bees back to their hives, it can make birds go to sleep and it seems the false night can also disrupt the rhythm of the Night Blooming Cereus.

Just before flowering, the buds lift themselves up

This is what John Dryburgh from Diss, England, believes has happened to his flowers. A keen gardener, he has cultivated Epiphyllum oxypetalum ever since he first saw the blooms in his airforce days in Singapore.

Every few years, on the night of a full moon, John says the buds lift their heads and the flowers bloom for just a few hours, and then, by morning, they are gone.

John could always count on their regularity, but not this year - the flowers are early, he says.

The Norfolk gardener is blaming the eclipse. The link is impossible to prove, but there is no denying the flowers' beauty.